We Have The Biology

I just want to share a few thoughts about the video by Jill Bolte Taylor which I mentioned a few posts ago. If you haven't seen it, do go and take a look. It's quite amazing.

Jill experienced a stroke which intermittently incapacitated the left hand side of her brain, so that her right hemisphere became dominant. She reports becoming disconnected from her mental chatter, experiencing a sense of peace and euphoria, and feeling at one with All That Is.

She realized that she had found Nirvana and yet she was still alive. If this is true, she reasoned, then everyone who is alive can find Nirvana. She pictured "a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate people who knew that they could come to this space at any time".

This got me thinking about human potential.

Many people believe that our ultimate goal is to merge with universal consciousness, with All That Is, with God, or whatever you want to call it. Then our suffering will come to an end and we will dissolve in a cloud of bliss.

This is quite a nice idea and is certainly a lot better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but I can't help having the sneaking feeling that, when push comes to shove, it isn't enough. That, ultimately, bliss is not enough.

The way I look at it, bliss is where we started from. We embarked on our current adventure in the so-called material world in a quest for something more than that, for experience, for darkness as well as light - in order to allow us to fully know the light.

The only trouble is: we got too heavily into this. It's like we were playing a game of, say, Tomb Raider, but forgot that we were playing a game. So we started thinking that the Tomb Raider world was real. Which is where we are at the moment. Only now we're starting to wake up and remember it's only a game. Not to stop playing the game - because the game has great potential - but to wake up and get the game into perspective. To see the world as we know it now, with its seemingly solid objects, but also to see that all this is really a fantasy in a field of bliss. To walk around and interact with the world and the people in it, but understand at the same time that we are all part of a quantum field of energy, that all of us are really One - and start behaving accordingly.

This is what I see as our ultimate goal (at least for the time being!): not the release of oblivion, but something more like what Jesus called 'Heaven on Earth'. To be in the world yet not of it, to live in our 'material' universe with all its potential for rich and diverse experience, yet at the same time to know who we truly are: to live lightly and fearlessly, free of the heavy burden of separation.

Jill Bolte Taylor's video suggests that we have the potential to do this right now, in these bodies of ours, with these heads of ours. We have a left hemisphere to see our familar world of 'solid' objects, and a right one to see the field which underlies it . All we need to do is get those hemispheres into balance.

Heaven on Earth is only a tweak of consciousness away. We already have the biology we need.

 

These may also be of interest:

A Stroke Of Insight

Philip Pullman - A Process of Evolution

The Ultimate Purpose of Life?

Comments

[Grace]

Hey, Simon!

I was so enthralled by this gal's story, and really started me thinking about the connection between our biology and our spiritual 'experiences' alot! And I am in total agreement with you. If "Bliss" was the goal, why even bother to come here? :)

There's this theory I've been playing around with..tell me what you think. For the sake of discussion, let's say "God" is an infinite, creative intelligent energy. This energy is expanding at the speed of..what? thought? Intention? Desire? ... every moment. Wouldn't it stand to reason that as GodSparks ourselves, that we are ALSO on the leading edge of this creative experience from God's point of view? Perhaps the creation process itself is the point...managing our own power, so to speak, in order to expand the experience that God has with itself!

lol SHEESH... not sure if that made sense but hopefully you know what I'm trying to say here....

[Simon]

I’m thinking along the same sort of lines, Grace. It seems to me that God is searching for an ideal way of being, and we are at the ‘leading edge’ as you describe it. Of course, there will be other such experiments elsewhere in the universe – indeed, this searching may be the whole *point* of the universe – but this one here on Earth is very promising, if we can only get this little ‘tweak’ sorted out before we destroy ourselves! What we are talking about is the possibility of being in touch with the power and bliss of our true nature yet also having the experience and companionship which duality makes possible. And we have this almost within our grasp…

But also, yes, as you say, the creative process itself may be the point. We humans like doing creative things for the sake of it, so the chances are that God does too. And after all, to say that *this* is the point or *that* is the point is to try to place limitations on something which must necessarily be limitless. Yet it is fun to speculate, is it not?

Many thanks for your stimulating comment!

[Harmony]

Bliss is where we started.
Wow...it gets better than bliss.
Simon, the world is searching, striving, yearning just to find bliss, and you challenge us by intimating there is more than even bliss...
there is incarnation.

Wonderful post.
Thank you!
Harmony

[Simon]

Many thanks for your kind comment, Harmony! "There is even more than bliss... there is incarnation." That's a great way of putting it! I guess it *is* setting our sights a bit high, and right this moment, I have to admit, I'd be willing to settle for bliss, but the story goes that a human incarnation is very highly regarded... because of its *potential*.

[Liara Covert]

I agree "bliss" is where we all started from. Some people also forget bliss is where at least part of us still is and always will be. Choose to remove the veil that dulls your senses. Open yourself to a world that changes everything.

[Simon]

Thanks for reminding us of this, Liara. When we connect with bliss, it is indeed like a veil being lifted. And when it has lifted, it seems as though you could do the same thing any time you like. Then when the veil falls down again, it no longer seems so easy - at least for me. But that is the 'Heaven on Earth' of which I dream: to be here on Earth just the same as ever - yet the veil of separation removed.

[Robin]

Hi Simon - I agree with your take on this… In my opinion we are already fully spiritual beings and are bringing our consciousness into physical matter - we're getting there! Cheers.

[Cordie `B.]

That was a powerfull post! It reminds me of this bible verse, (personally, my favorite and which I have chosen to live by)

1st Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;

13:10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.

13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.

13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.

13:13 But now faith, hope, and love remain--these three. The greatest of these is love.

For me it reads that now we see only partly but one day we will see everything as it really is. (Reality) From the doctor's remarkable experience, I imagine reality is love and love is reality - and only that which is lasting is real.

But in as much, the same way we change our outlook from child to adult - our outlook will be changed once more. But finally we won't be looking at life as in a dark mirror, but we will understand everything crystal clear. All of our prophesys will go away, our languages will cease, and even our knowledge will cease - but alas love will last forever. Since we all can experience love, we All can experience the greatest.

Thanks so very much for sharing.

Peace, Light and Love,
Cordieb.

[Sally]

Yes Simon
And that veil, I feel, is our sense of self and when that drops away we can begin to really get a sense of Oneness.......and that is true love.
I also have a sense that this is what is beyond bliss as it is total Stillness and peace. Once you have had a taste of that I feel it becomes more of who you really are. Not so much a practice but just a way of being.......your natural state.

[Sally]

May I add to my previous post that this stillness and peace is the "Peace which passes all understanding".....because the mind cannot begin to grasp it!

[Simon]

Hi Robin - Welcome to my blog! I just had the idea that our bodies are a bit like a space suit - or a diving suit - something which allows our true selves to interact with an alien environment. Up until now, part of the suit has been incapacitated. But we're about to get an upgrade...

[Simon]

Hi Cordie B - Welcome to you too and thanks for your good wishes! This is a part of the bible which really resonates down the centuries, isn't it? Perhaps because we unconsciously recognize the profound truth it contains. And it does seem to fit with this post, I think: the idea of breaking through to see things as they really are. Meanwhile, here we are at our computers, grasping at understanding, peering into a glass darkly... Thanks for quoting this here!

[Simon]

Hi Sally - Thanks for pointing out the nature of the veil! People who reach enlightenment seem to speak not of adding anything to what they previously were but of something falling away. And what it is that falls away appears to be that sense of self, the guise that we wear.

And after it has gone, what is left? Is it 'crystal clear understanding' to quote Cordie, or something which 'passeth understanding' as Sally suggests? I suspect the two are one and the same. I suspect there are too many facets to what remains to comprehend the whole from our present perspective, but someday we will venture beyond the mind: to *knowing*.

Many thanks for all your comments!

[Sue Ann Edwards]

Hi {{Simon}}} !!!!

I read your post just right before I unplugged everything to re-organize my 'office' space.

Interesting topic....{{GRINNING}}

I have a question for you: Does it really matter WHERE we apply polarity/duality thinking patterns? Does it make any difference in the pattern of polarity itself?

left/right...up/down...good/bad...

Are ALL polarity patterns.

Ever hear the one about "The Emperor's New Clothes"? The story about the con men that said ONLY intelligent people could see the fabric of their clothes? And all the people that were too scared to say that didn't see anything? Until one little child spoke up and said: "the emperor isn't wearing any clothes"?

Well that's what 'enlightenment' is like. Stating the OBVIOUS that we're too afraid to see, because it doesn't support our vanities most of the time.

What a crock, "something which passeth beyond understanding"!!! That speaks VOLUMES about capacity TO Understand doesn't it?

What if I put it this way....?

What we consider 'physical' is PART of God
's expression, which in unfolding. It will take several more Ages of Man before the WILL aspect becomes completely into physical expression.

Know what I mean by the word "precipitates"? Because that is what the physical plane Is, a precipitate.

It's about INTIMACY. It's about an artist experiencing their artwork....climbing into the picture to EXPERIENCE how it FEELS.

Our veils part, lift, dissolve, whatever, revealing GREATER VALUES in what we already know. We don't lose ourselves. We simply EXPAND our definition, realization and recognition of WHOM we are.

[Mark]

Very well stated. This is the key, we don't need to die of our physical self to experience heaven, however in a way we must die of who we are today to know the nirvana of which you speak. Very cool, isn't it!

[Simon]

Hi Sue Ann and Mark - Thanks for your comments - it makes sense to discuss them together. Mark says: "We must die of who we are today to know the nirvana of which you speak" whereas Sue Ann says of the same process: "We don't lose ourselves..." Once again, we have an apparent contradiction, yet I don't think it *is* a contradiction.

What Mark says is how it will seem from our perspective. What we will lose when we know nirvana is who we *think* we are at the moment, the part of us which is desperate to do all these things and be all these things in order to somehow validate ourselves: "to complete ourselves" as Eckhart Tolle puts it. Or in other words, the part of ourselves which gives ourselves a hard time.

But from the point of view I've experienced when I've briefly glimpsed this falling away - and from Sue Ann's perspective too, I guess - we don’t lose ourselves at all, because we are not this poor struggling being, the limited 'us' we think we are after all. We do indeed "expand our definiton, realization and recognition of who we are" as Sue Ann puts it. We seem to be bigger rather than smaller. It can seem like the whole universe is flowing through us.

And then, yes, it all seems simple. The veil we have just pushed aside seems like the Emperor’s New Clothes. When we look back (which, to be honest, we are not very interested in doing) it seems like there is nothing there at all.

It is only when we lose that ‘knowing’ that the veil reappears, falls back into place, and things seem complex again.

Like Sue Ann’s conundrum about duality, for instance – what are we to make of that? I really must write some more about the folly of calling things “good” or “bad”, those judgements which serve no purpose except to cause us pain. But what is the problem with “left” and “right” or “up” and “down”? This construct in which we live is composed of dualities. We can’t discard them all, or we’ll end up lost all the time. We could go out to post a letter and never find our way home. Perhaps we should just ask ourselves whether any particular duality causes us pain or not before we disregard it. I don’t have a problem with “left” and “right”, nor with “up” and “down” – unless I jump out of a window.

And finally, my favorite bit of Sue Ann’s comment is when she says: “It's about an artist experiencing their artwork....climbing into the picture to EXPERIENCE how it FEELS.” Oh, yes! That’s what I thought we were doing – thanks for the confirmation, Sue Ann!

[Sue Ann Edwards]

It's my BIRTHDAY today! I MADE IT another year! That's another YEAR of experiences...

my treasure chest grows and grows.

(Smiling.) And you *know* what kind of year I've had.

What you've done {{simon}} in your response, is use BOTH sides, left AND right, in Unison. You 'saw' through the "apparent" contradiction.

I avoid using terms that infer any sort of loss. Because that fear is what I *know* our "false self" uses to keep our realization at a distance. That's why I will phrase it, that we expand, past our "ring that says we are *not*".

It is a matter of Identity and from a Spiritual point of view, any identity we invent OTHER then Spirit, is an illusion of time. And called "Self Denial".

The fact I call myself a Complete Idiot tells you that I'm not working on it any longer. Which infers that while I walked "The Path", I walked it as a half wit most of the time.

From our World's pattern of thinking, I'm crazy. From my perspective of Unity, I think the World's patterns of thinking are crazy. These are not contradictions but perspectives of different "poles" along ONE axis. Or maybe different points along ONE rubber band.

When I had my head up *you-know-where* things looked very different then they do from standing upright. It's still me, no matter what position I take.

What use is Intellect without the Wisdom Intuition brings? What use is Knowledge without the Creativity of applying it? What use is sperm without a womb? What use is a womb without sperm?

Oil and water DO mix, cooperatively. They cooperate on a quantum level and mix exactly as the nature of their structure is programmed to do.

BRAVO! {{Simon}} You *saw* THROUGH the contradiction.

[Sue Ann Edwards]

We are not our Story...

We are the Reader of our story...

"The Path", "The Way", is an actual and genuine expansion of Identity. Uh er, um...when 'the devil' tempted 'Jesus' and said "all this will be yours", it was because the 'all this' pointed to, was nothing, was minuscule, compared to what 'Jesus' already had realized.

It is the STORY of "Hercules" or "Hera-kles" which MEANS: Soul's Glory. And to stand in our "Soul's Glory" is what the 12 labors, reconciling being both a son of man and a son of god, are all about.

"The Path" is *there* in all our literature, all SPELLED out. We simply haven't known how to interpret or comprehend it. And THAT goes back to the "passeth beyond understanding" idea. Once I poke a finger in my eye, it is no wonder I can't see. Once I've imagined a limit in my capacity, I will perform at that level.

[Simon]

As ever, thanks for your encouragement, Sue Ann! It's always nice when I get it right - although, of course, it's equally fine when I don't!

David Hawkins says that it *feels* like death when the ego falls away, but after it's happened, you realize it wasn't really. It's nice to have you confirm this.